On March 17, Pro-Palestine protesters gathered in Old Port to denounce Israel’s bombardment of Gaza and to call for the end to the siege on Gaza.

During the protest, multiple speakers brought up McGill students that are partaking in a hunger strike. At the time of the protest, students had been on a hunger strike for almost 30 days. Currently the hunger strike has surpassed 30 days. Recently one of the hunger strikers, Rania, had been hospitalized and required to end the hunger strike. Hunger strikers are demanding McGill to divest from their ties with Israel and boycott companies affiliated with Israel.

As of March 17, the day of the protest, at least 31,645 Palestinians had been killed and 73,676 injured as a result of Israel’s attacks on Gaza since October 7. Within these statistics, more than 13 thousand children had been killed.

Protesters marched through the streets of Old Port chanting for Palestinian liberation. The protest was hosted by Montreal4Palestine and Palestinian Youth Movement. These two groups have been hosting weekly protests following Oct. 7. Their demands remain the same: for Israel to end its bombardment of Gaza, to lift the siege on Gaza, for Canada to call for an immediate and indefinite ceasefire and for Canada to impose an arms embargo on Israel.

Canada called for a ceasefire in a joint-statement with Australia and New Zealand as Israel threatened a ground invasion in Rafah, Gaza’s most southern point. The letter said that a military invasion in Rafah would be “catastrophic”. One day after the protest, the Canadian parliament voted in favour of a non-binding motion ending arms sales to Israel. The motion was passed with the support of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, who have been heavily critiqued by pro-Palestine activists for their support for Israel. The original version of the motion had called on the Canadian government to “recognize the state of Palestine”, however, this was not included in the motion that was approved.